At the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow last night human rights specialist Aamer Anwar spoke ahead of the presentation of the Equality and Social Justice award, sponsored by British Transport Police, at the Ethnic Minority Achievement Awards.

Anwar successfully sued Strathclyde Police after being assaulted by officers in a racially aggravated attack in 1991.

Here is the full text of Aamer's speech.

"If anyone had told me 18 years ago when i was as student campaigner playing cat and mouse with Sstrathclyde Police around the steets of Glasgow that 18 years later, I would be standing on a stage with the Police presenting an award for social justice, I would have told them they were stark raving bonkers. And I’m sure the police would have thought the same.

It's funny how life turns out, but I would prefer to call it progress.

The award that British Transport Police will be presenting is an important one. Many of us here tonight have done very well in our chosen fields, and sometimes it can be very easy to forget the discrimination and racism still felt by our communities. To slip into complacency as we drive off to our nice houses in the suburbs.

We can all be guilty of patronising our parents as they remind us of when they first came to this country, but outside these walls, in Glasgow across Scotland our communities face a difficult times. The sacrifices our parents made with their sweat and tears, and in some cases blood must not be forgotten.

The fact that today's racism, takes culture or religion as its raw materials does not make it any less real for its victims.  Nick Griffin's BNP has been quick to understand this, and we must take on their arguments. But not by adopting their slogans such as British jobs for British workers, or by condemning the new communities as they arrive, whether they be Roma or Polish.

This government has exploited the politics of fear by bringing in tougher anti-terror laws, cracking down on asylum seekers. The result of stop and search is the criminalisation of entire communities. In many communities, there is a growing climate of fear.

But I am tired of our the government lecturing on how my community has to integrate. I was born and bred in this country and am against violence, and do not have to apolgise for each act of terror. I live and work in and walk in the same streets as the next person and am just as likely to be blown up by a terrorist bomb.

If there is one thing i have learned in 18 years, it is that freedom and justice is not handed to you on a plate, by a system run like a gentleman’s colonial club for over 400 years. You have to fight for it.

Many said after Chhokar campaign, after the Stephen Lawrence campaign, what did you achieve? What we showed is that you cannot destroy the memory of a loved one. The racists failed because the names of Imran, Stephen, Surjit and Kriss Donald, and many others will live forever, long after the names of their killers dissapear.

It is important we learn from our past. The best possible tribute and memorial to the courage, stamina and persistence of our parents and those who have lost their lives to violence Is to fight for a legacy. All our parents ever demanded was the right to live with dignity, freedom and respect. Central to this is a simple basic human right, justice.

Justice is responsibility that we as a community must shoulder to make sure the voice of the voiceless is heard.

I’d like to thank the organisers for giving me the opportunity to speak.